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Five Tuesdays in Winter

 Lily King called her first story collection "Five Tuesdays in Winter"; the title is a dare. King is daring herself to find extraordinary moments within superficially banal settings. Extraordinary moments within a "winter Tuesday."


Mitchell's daughter, who was twelve, accused him of loving his books but hating his customers. He didn't hate them. He just didn't like having to chat with them or lead them to clearly marked sections--if they couldn't read, why were they buying books? ....

His daughter loved the customers. She sat behind the counter at the cash drawer every Saturday, writing up receipts in an illegible imitation of his own hand and chatting like an innkeeper. She was too tall and too sophisticated for a Maine preteen. She made him uneasy. She had recently learned the word "reticent" and used it on him constantly. 

"Isn't he the most reticent person you've ever met?" she asked Kate, his only other employee.

"Maybe not the very most," Kate said...

"But he's--"

"That's enough, Paula," he said, then, feeling a pulse of blood to his cheeks, fled to the stockroom.

Mitchell had good ears, and just before he shut the door, he heard Kate's gentle reprimand: "I think as a rule people don't like being spoken of in the third person...."


Much is happening within this triangle. Mitchell is congenitally irritable; his little daughter, Paula, "has his number." Whether she knows it or not, Paula is playing matchmaker. Getting Kate to discuss Mitchell's reticence is a way of getting Kate to discuss Mitchell. And though Mitchell runs away, he doesn't *exactly* run away. He overhears Kate's reprimand--a part of him is gauging whether Kate might be a worthy addition to Paula's life. (Kate passes the test.) Then there are grace notes. King sneaks in Paula's name without having to *announce* that name. And the first sentence establishes Mitchell's occupation, but also, within an "aside," it does something more important: it tells us that Michell is a father.

It's a pleasure to spend time with Lily King because almost every sentence has a secret. When Mitchell exits stage left, he "flees." When Kate needs to deliver her reprimand, she softens the blow with extra words; her use of "I think" is smart. It's a way of seeming less abrupt, less terse.

I really like Lily King.
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